Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a satellite radio wave receiving device, a radio controlled timepiece, a method of outputting date and time information, and a recording medium.
Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there are known electronic timepieces (radio controlled timepieces) which involve technique that receives radio waves carrying date and time information to acquire the date and time information for maintaining correct count of date and time. Such radio controlled timepieces that can acquire correct date and time eliminate the need for manual correction by users and facilitate accurate correction of the date and time during continuous time counting and display.
One example of sources of the radio waves carrying the date and time information is positioning satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS), which is one of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Radio waves in a global common format can be received from the positioning satellites in the same positioning system in any field open to the sky, and are preferably used in portable timepieces, such as watches, carried by users in motion.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-10251, for example, discloses a radio controlled timepiece which conducts operations, such as reception of satellite radio waves and decoding of date and time information, with a dedicated module (satellite radio wave receiving device). The date and time information received by the module is output to a main processor of the radio controlled timepiece to correct the date and time. The main processor of the radio controlled timepiece thus needs to acquire the date and time information from the module at a proper timing. Upon identification of the date and time from the satellite radio waves, the typical satellite radio wave receiving device outputs the date and time information in the date-hour-minute-second format in synchronization with the timing exactly on the second including no fraction. This facilitates the timing synchronization with the radio controlled timepiece to acquire the correct date and time with the main processor of the radio controlled timepiece.
Unfortunately, the outputs of the date and time information from the satellite radio wave receiving device in uniform synchronization with the timings exactly on the seconds generate unwanted waiting times before the outputs depending on the timings of the identification of the date and time information. Such generation of the waiting times directly leads to a variation in waiting time of a user, an increase in unwanted waiting time, and an increase in operation time required for the correction of the date and time, i.e., an increase in excess power consumption. Such problems lead to low convenience and low flexibility in the date and time adjustment.